Half Ball Bank Shots

Whenever someone asks me what is the proper way to bank, my answer would always be "feel". Because if you go through all those measuring and calculation of angles, you still have to get the proper speed and also consider all the other factors that affect the path of the object ball. So, here's a little drill that would help a beginner or maybe an intermediate player to start "feeling" a simple bank shot which usually comes up in an actual game.

Use center ball, half ball hit, soft to medium stroke in all of these shots. Once you get comfortable with these types of bank, you might want to try experimenting with a tad of english and move on with various speeds.

Please take note that these shots are all within a diamond from the intended pocket and the object ball is no farther than 4 inches from the rail. I have used the CB, 1B, 2B, 3B as cueballs to pocket the 4B, 5B, 6B, 7B respectively. Obviously, the intended pocket is the pocket from where you are cueing the object ball.

You may want to try cross banking the length of the table also.

Figure 1

Gutsy last Ball Bank

I'm pretty sure most of you have encountered this situation in Figure 2, wherein the cue ball is near the corner pocket, and the object ball is in such a position that it would be too thin a cut to the side pocket. Trying to pocket it to corner pocket A would definitely result in a scratch. Would you play safe or what?

Figure 2

If you're feeling gutsy, the way to shoot this shot is to bank it into corner pocket B, hitting the cue ball full, using just a hair of low left english, medium to hard stroke. Practice this shot and if you can make it 50% of the time, next time you're faced with this situation, GO FOR IT!